Going north, south, east, west - Chicago UPDATED 1/7 About This Page:

[Lemap760]

Just getting caught up. I've missed a lot. It's great that you have a tour guide in Lesley to show you around Chicago.
I would feel very claustrophobic in that hotel room.

[clio]

All caught up now. I love all the pictures of Chicago. That room is really small.
Liz

[DrDolphin]

Wonderful updates!! I remember the episode of CSI:NY with that building in it too!!!

[MickeyMAC]

Great pictures Cheryl. I've only flown into Chicago never actually had a chance to see it, your pictures were a wonderful photo tour.

[disneybecky]

Great updates! I just love seeing your pictures of Chicago! Its funny with it so close by we never take the time to go there and do the tourist thing there. We should rethink that.

[chezp]

Friday 24 October – part three: Chicago from above

The John Hancock Center was our next stop and the first time we used our Go Chicago Card. We debated whether to go up then or later in the day, but went for it in the end. I’m glad we did, as the views from there were quite something. Every way you looked, there was something worth seeing. This city really does just go on and on for miles.

What kept striking me was how green it was, with a lot of places for people to enjoy. I had been surprised by how many trees we had seen coming in. It’s very reminiscent of the UK in that respect. Even as we walked along earlier, we had seen some lovely floral displays and again, I was surprised that they were still going strong, mainly because in my mind, I had Chicago down as a cold city and assumed that by mid October, most things would be dying off. They certainly would be at home, but no sign of it here.

Lesley pointed out some roof top swimming pools. Again, I had seen a number of these as we had flown in and that surprised me as well. Another thing I wasn’t expecting to see was how vast Lake Michigan was. Somehow I always picture a lake as having an ending. Not here. It just stretched into the horizon. It’s something like 300 miles long and 69 miles wide. You can’t even comprehend that. :

I’m sure Lesley will correct me if any of the captioning of these photos is wrong!

On the way up in the elevator

Looking over towards Navy Pier

A close-up of Navy Pier

Lake Michigan

The Chicago skyline

The Adler Planetarium

Just poking out from the high rise building in the centre of shot is the Shedd Aquarium

Looking down at the Water Tower and Pumping Station

Yes, they have a harbour here as well!

The Chicago River

The Sears Tower

This amazing structure is actually a parking lot! You wait until the close-up shots that we got of it...

Building work on the Trump Tower

North Michigan Avenue that we’d just walked along

A huge McDonald’s!

Yes, they have beaches here as well!

Lincoln Park


The far north of the city suburbs

He even found a silly photo op up here!


Milton Lee Oliver Park

Close-ups of Navy Pier

The far south of the city suburbs

Finally, we finished admiring the view and headed back to ground level with a new appreciation of the city. We were going to take the Grayline tour over to our next stop, Navy Pier, where we would be catching the one hour architecture cruise from, but we quickly realised that the tour only ran one way and it would take us forever to get there, so we opted to talk there. Again, we saw lots of beautiful buildings as we walked along.


I had to get a photo of this, as this is the name of the main road in London’s West End theatre land












Next: cruising through Chicago’s architecture

[Wendyismyname]

Love, love, love those photos!!
When I was up there with Josh's class trip, from the Field Museum, we also had a view of the harbor, but the opposite, it was looking toward Navy Pier and The JH Center and Sears Tower. Anyway, really great update!

[dejavu]

I am really enjoying your Chicago pictures and TR. I lived in Lincoln Park and worked downtown, years ago, and it's fun to see the sights through someone else's eyes. Terrific pictures. Cheryl, Lesley and Mark are quite photogenic, don't you think??

[claytrgtshooter]

Great pics of Chicago -- looking forward to the next installment

[Kenny]

Ehhh... I don't know! Mark just doesn't strike me as the "window washer type"!

Great pictures again, Cheryl. And, once again, you've given me a new way of looking at a city I thought I knew a little about!

[MaryEL8775]

Totally loving the sites of Chicago. Thanks for sharing them with us. I can't wait to read more...

[bonphil]

Wonderful photos, Cheryl!

The rooms at the hotel are REALLY small, I stayed there also, and it was cozy!

[Meggera]

Your pictures of Chicago are fabulous. I want to go back so badly! What great views of the city. I can't wait to hear about your architecture cruise. We were going to do it but ran out of time. I hope it is fantastic!

[lauren-roxy]

Fantastic photos!!!

[christiejay]

Great updates and photos. Loved the views from the observatory. Looking forward to hearing about the architecture tour.